Tooele charged with murder in a 50-year-old case

WERNAL, Utah (ABC4) – A Tooele, Utah man has been charged with the 1974 murder of 21-year-old Army veteran Gregory Dahl Nickell, according to new court documents filed on Friday, November 1.

Fifty-two years after Nickell’s brutal murder, investigators and detectives have identified 74-year-old Darrel Eugene Choate as the second suspect involved in his death. Choate was charged with first-degree murder.

In 2022 Uintah County Sheriff’s Office announced the first breakthrough in the caseidentifying Daniel Arthur Bell as one of the suspects. However, investigators confirmed that Bell died in Yakima, Washington, and his body was cremated in 2019.

Investigators didn’t know the second suspect at the time, hoping a breakthrough in the 50-year-old’s cold case could bring more answers.

1972 murder

On the night of November 26, 1972, Nickell was on a date with an 18-year-old woman. The two parked in a parking lot off Highway 40 west of Vernal, Utah. While the two were enjoying the evening, they were approached by a “submissive man” who shot Nickell multiple times. The woman then told investigators that Nickell “tried to shield her from the hail of bullets,” believing some of the shots were also intended for her.

The suspect then hijacked Nickell’s car with the woman inside, meeting up with the second suspect further down the highway. The two drove to the reservoir now known as Brough Reservoir, where they allegedly burned Nickell and his car and raped the 18-year-old victim.

Two suspects reportedly held the woman against her will for several hours before releasing her east of Duchesne City, where she later found help and DNA evidence was collected.

For years, then-Uintah County Sheriff Arden Steward investigated the case but was unable to identify or locate the suspects, and the case was ultimately closed.

Breakthrough in the case

In 2019, DNA evidence collected from the victim was submitted to the Utah State Crime Laboratory for DNA processing. Thanks to the new technology, it was possible to extract DNA samples from two men from the evidence.

DNA was matched to Daniel Arthur Bell using a national database. Bell was discovered to have died in 2019 but was living in Ballard and Price, Utah, as well as Bend, Ore., and Yakima, Washington.

In 1987, he was also convicted of another rape he committed in Oregon. His wife later told investigators that Bell revealed that his friend “Gene” was involved in the rape. “Gene” also allegedly stole Bell’s Navy uniform and was last seen in the 1980s or 1990s.

Unfortunately for prosecutors, the national database failed to find a match for the second DNA sample, leaving the case open again.

Darrel Choate identified

The second man’s DNA was sent to a private laboratory for further processing. The price lab determined that the man was associated with the family name “Choate,” according to charging documents.

A records search later located a man identified as Darrel Eugene Choate, who had ties to Oregon, Washington, and Ballard and Price, Utah. The Uintah County Sheriff’s Office said Choate also had an extensive criminal history, including sex crimes in Price.

Officers visiting Choate’s residence on an unrelated matter collected a surreptitious DNA sample that was later compared to a DNA sample taken in connection with a 1972 murder. Both samples were found to match each other.

“This direct DNA match is evidence that Darrel Eugene Choate is one of the two suspects, and not merely a close familial match to one of the suspects,” charging documents state.